Class blog for Anth 249: Evolution and human disease. We will be responding to class readings and engaging with the wider network of blogs and online content on evolutionary medicine. We might also make up some fun projects along the way.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

First Reader: Obesity

As I
was reading this week’s chapters on obesity, I felt like I was familiar with a
lot of information from reading various weight loss and health-related
articles. Being pretty conscious about what I eat and how much I eat, I couldn’t
help but sympathize with those who go on a healthy-eating streak only to come
crashing down a few weeks later. The first time I seriously committed to a
healthy eating plan, I went on a heavily-restricted diet consisting of not much
more than limp salads and extra lean meat. As you would imagine, the plan
backfired and I ended up with immense cravings for fatty, sugary, processed
foods within a few weeks. Since then, I’ve learned that if you strip your diet
of all fat and sugar—some which your body actually needs—then you’re likely to
end up right back at square one. As was mentioned in chapter 3, “when
individuals over restrict, they rebound with over consumption and ‘yo-yo’ between
weight loss and regain” (Trevathan 80). Another topic that I find particularly
interesting is the concept of satiety vs. hunger. There is a huge mental
component in hunger, and there is a lot of evidence in our society today that
suggests we don’t always eat because we are actually hungry. We may be eating for
social reasons, because we are distracted, bored, or in many of my cases,
stressed. In fact, studies have shown that it takes about 20 minutes for our
bodies to recognize satiety. 20 minutes…it takes me half that time to down a
meal. So it’s no wonder overeating has become such a problem, especially with
larger portion sizes and abundance of food available everywhere. The point was
made by Lieberman that we can no longer rely on internal cues to tell us when
we’re full; so how exactly do we judge the point of satiety? It’s almost no
surprise that obesity rates are climbing when eating has become an activity
that requires so much self-control, but yet is made extremely difficult by all
the temptations that surround us.